Convenient Decoy Cat: Difference between revisions

[[File:convenientdecoycat_4825convenientdecoycat 4825.jpg|link=Innocent Venus|frame|Hint: [[Captain Obvious|The hero is hiding at the right.]]]]

A small animal -- almostanimal—almost always a cat, but it can also be a mouse, squirrel, raccoon, bird, etc. -- appears just next to him and distracts the bad guys, who then '''[[The Guards Must Be Crazy|completely dismiss]]''' the spot where the hero was, and move on. Hurray! Our heroes are saved!

Not to be confused with [[Cat Scare]] (used in suspense or horror movies). Related to [[It's Probably Nothing]] and [[Nobody Here But Us Birds]]. Subtrope of [[Escape Tropes|escape trope]]. Can overlap with [[Blind Alley]].

* A variation in ''[[Dragon Ball (Manga)|Dragon Ball]] Z'': Krillin, Gohan and Dende are trying to hide from Vegeta, who just learned to detect ''ki''. When he sensed Dende's small ''ki'', a fish jumps off the water, leading him to think that was the ''ki'' he sensed and leave.

* Subverted in ''[[Genesis Climber Mospeada]]'' and it's ''[[Robotech]]: New Generation'' counterpart. Yellow, Ray and Mint are in Carnegie Hall hiding from an Inbit sentry when a cat runs by and stops the sentry believing the noise it heard was just a cat. Turns out the cat was actually a performance by a boy named George who appeared to help the heroes.

* [[Tintin (Comic Book)]] has been assisted by decoy animals on occasion:

** In ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)/Recap/Prisoners of the Sun|Prisoners of the Sun]]'', Tintin is almost spotted by Chiquito sneaking onto the "Pachacamac," but there is a convenient cat. "No es nada, debe de ser el gato..."

** In ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)/Recap/Land of Black Gold|Land of Black Gold]]'', Snowy serves as a Convenient Decoy Dog when a [[Sneeze of Doom]] almost gives Tintin away.

* ''[[Dr. No (Film)|Dr. No]]''. [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]], Honey Rider and Quarrel are hiding underwater in a river with Dr. No's guards searching for them using German Shepherds. The dogs are clearly [[They Have the Scent|on the protagonists' scent]] ("They're onto something!"), the guards draw nearer and then...a flock of birds bursts out of cover, the guards figure that they're what the dogs were after, and leave.

* Inverted in ''[[Snakes Onon a Plane]]'', where the cat benefits the villains: the luggage inspection dogs detect the snakes, but the handlers think they're just barking at a hissing cat and move on. [[Fridge Brilliance|Come to think of it,]] the bad guys may have planted that cat there for that purpose.

* [[The Dresden Files (Literature)|Harry Dresden]] owns a massive cat. This comes in useful when his rogue wizard ex-girlfriend is hiding in his home while a wizard law enforcement agent is being hostile and suspicious in his front room. Hearing a thump, the Warden starts to investigate, until Mister the cat runs out and Harry makes a wisecrack about how the cat could be a dangerous subversive. This defuses the situation entirely.

* In ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (Literature)|Memory Sorrow and Thorn]]'', when Simon is hiding in a cellar from the [[Evil Sorcerer]] Pryrates, he is saved from Pryrates' [[Compelling Voice]] by the sudden appearance of a grey cat, whom the villain mistakes for the intruder he was searching for. The cat comes in handy much later in the story, too.